Pavement Management

Pierce County road crews work year-round to operate, maintain and preserve our roadways.

Operations:

Crews regularly sweep the roads and clear obstacles such as trees, animals, garbage, mudslides and snow. The schedule for sweeping is based on traffic counts, with major corridors being swept a few times a month and residential roads being swept about once a year.

Maintenance:

Maintaining pavement includes the following tasks:

Crack repair: Crews clean and fill cracks to keep water out and prevent further damage.

Pothole repair: Pierce County offers a 24-hour pothole response to keep potholes from getting bigger. Report potholes through the Request for Action Form or by calling (253) 798-6000. Crews will make temporary asphalt repairs within 24 hours of a report. They will then return to patch pavement with hot mix asphalt and seal the edges.

Rutting and wear repair: Crews grind pavement to remove the failed pavement and then replace it with new pavement and seal the edges. In some cases, it is necessary to pave over the failed pavement.

Preservation:

By resurfacing the roadway, we can extend its life seven to 10 years and reduce maintenance costs. Applications including chipseal, fog seal, microsurfacing, slurry seal, or cape seal provide a new wearing course and seal existing pavement to extend its useful life.